[James L]

Hey all,

A question came up today with a client in Portland while discussing different nations military commitments, whether or not the US will ever reinstate a draft (which I doubt they will), etc. His point was that the US forces are spread so thin around the globe that they will have to, which doesn't sound completely right to me. I was wondering if anyone knew of a source for this information (i.e. number of troops in Iraq, number in Korea, Japan Germany, Afghanistan, etc and how many units still remain in reserve back at home). I don't know enough about the statistics of the US military, but I can't see a US draft returning and would like information to point him towards to show him this.

Cheers,

James

[Zimphire]

The draft was just a big left wing scare before the elections.

Ignore it.

[CreepingDeth]

Originally posted by Zimphire:
The draft was just a big left wing scare before the elections.

Ignore it.

[TeknoTurd]

Gotta love Cox and Forkum! God, the DNC fear machine is good if people to this day still believe there is going to be a draft.

[CreepingDeth]

Originally posted by TeknoTurd:
Gotta love Cox and Forkum! God, the DNC fear machine is good if people to this day still believe there is going to be a draft.

Who doesn't love a good C&F cartoon?

Commies, that's who.

[James L]

I know the draft was a scare, as I mentioned in my post. It brought up a post of interest, however, on the distribution of the US forces around the world and what percentage of them are active. If anyone has this information it would be interesting to see.

[SimeyTheLimey]

Originally posted by James L:
Hey all,

A question came up today with a client in Portland while discussing different nations military commitments, whether or not the US will ever reinstate a draft (which I doubt they will), etc. His point was that the US forces are spread so thin around the globe that they will have to, which doesn't sound completely right to me. I was wondering if anyone knew of a source for this information (i.e. number of troops in Iraq, number in Korea, Japan Germany, Afghanistan, etc and how many units still remain in reserve back at home). I don't know enough about the statistics of the US military, but I can't see a US draft returning and would like information to point him towards to show him this.

Cheers,

James

Type "deployment of US forces" into Google, and this is what you get. It looks like the links on the right will answer all your questions.

It says there are around 350,000 US forces deployed outside the US, including Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Korea, Germany, Italy, Japan, etc. etc. For comparison, from roughly 1950 to the end of the 1980s, the US military maintained around 350,000 in Western Europe alone. From 1973 onwards we managed that without a draft.

[James L]

Originally posted by SimeyTheLimey:
Type "deployment of US forces" into Google, and this is what you get. It looks like the links on the right will answer all your questions.

It says there are around 350,000 US forces deployed outside the US, including Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Korea, Germany, Italy, Japan, etc. etc. For comparison, from roughly 1950 to the end of the 1980s, the US military maintained around 350,000 in Western Europe alone. From 1973 onwards we managed that without a draft.

Thanks Simey, exactly what I was looking for.

Cheers!